New York, New York

Aug 15



What a few days we've had. We have been so lucky to stay with friends who have been kind and chauffered us everywhere in Connecticut and even took us down to the 'Big Apple'! I've never been to the city in the summer months, only when you freeze to death, so it was great to see it in the heat! Driving in from uptown was an experience, so glad we had someone who knew where they were going in the driving seat. The parkway down from Connecticut was a surprise too, it was so green and, no commercial vehicles allowed on it, wonderful. Travelled in along the East River partway and then cut across to the Hudson and down the westside. Parked where the lift takes the car up and you stay down on the ground floor, weird for us from the east side of the Atlantic! The streets as busy as ever, dodging people and traffic with the three stooges doing their act! Laurie in front, looking for me in the middle, looking for David bringing up the rear busy taking all the photos and video! Then the queue for the Empire State Building.... 45 minutes to get through security, 45 minutes to wait to buy tickets and then 30 minutes to get into the lift to the 80th floor! Then, 30 minutes to get the lift to the 86th floor. The security decided to open the door to the staircase to walk up the last 6 floors..... Laurie asks 'June, can you do this?' 'Ok' Nearly dead at the top, but I made it with help from Laurie holding my backpack for me... (It's now 11:25pm the following evening and I think the legs have stopped shaking).. It was a shame it was so hazy; Laurie grew up in New York but couldn't show us everything he would have liked to because he simply couldn't see all his local landmarks! Another time maybe. David loved it and I have to say to everyone, this is something you have to do once in your lifetime, it is so breathtakingly beautiful up there (yes, even in the haze). The other great thing is that for an extra $15 you can go up to the 102nd floor. Had the visibility been better we would have taken advantage of that, but on this occasion we didn't. It's still great value at only $19 each. Don't bother with the video show they're offering, you don't save much time and the show is rubbish anyway. Into Macy's for a small spot of retail therapy, some lunch and back to the car to miss some of the rush-hour traffic AND the rain, thunder and lightning! Rain? Mmm, you could say so. It blocked out the view of the Hudson River and we were right alongside it!



Sadly we left Kathy and Laurie today and headed northeast into Vermont. We have stayed overnight in a superb b&b, built in 1797, in Hyde Park, just outside Stowe. It is beautiful here and our hostess thinks the fall will be early this year as some of the trees are beginning to turn already. There is one just outside which is already partly red and is showing us a glimmer of the glory to come. Several trees along the highway were doing the same. It really is beautiful with the trees and the mountains (no phone signals) so it is very peaceful too. Stowe is a very quaint New England town and we shall be exploring it further tomorrow but I'm not sure if that will be before or after we visit Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Factory. We passed it on the way here but it was too close to closing time to go in, but tomorrow, ice cream here we come.